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Topic: Acknowledgent of Receipt (Read 1774 times)

I do a little freelance writing on the side - it's definitely a "hobby" right now (I don't get paid, I pick my topics and I don't have strict deadlines) but the hope is that it could lead to paid professional work in the future.

The editor I'm in contact with is lovely, very enthusiastic about my work (which is great when you're a newbie writer!) and we're in fairly regular contact.

The problem is (and it's all on my side), I'm an overthinker, so if I send a piece and don't get a response within the day, I start to worry that either it didn't send, or my editor hates it and is currently writing an email listing all the piece's failings, etc.

So, how do I ask my editor to let me know when she receives a piece of work without sounding pushy? I'm well aware she's a busy woman, so I don't want to sound disrespectful of that, especially since she's taking a total chance on someone with practically no experience.

Will the email program allow you to request a read receipt? If so, you can get confirmation that way. If she asks why, you can always make a vague comment about e-mail issues and not always being certain they've been delivered and seen, or something.

I'm not familiar with your industry, but I think expecting a response within a day is too much.

But here's some options

1) Put a "return receipt" on your email. Pros: You'll know when she opens your email.Cons: If it's in her inbox and she just waits a couple of days to open it, you still won't know for those 2 days whether it's in her inbox or got lost somewhere. If she opens it that day, you'll know she received it but if she doesn't respond in a few days you'll still be worrying about her not liking the content.

2)Ask her to send you a note when she receives it.Pros: You'll get confirmation like #1.Cons: Same as #1 but with also adding additional work to the editor.

My advice is "don't". Unless you are actually having email problems and have reason to suspect that they aren't getting there take a deep breath and realize she has a lot of other things to take care of and she will get to you when she can. You really don't want to get a reputation as a high maintenance person who needs people to drop things for you right this instance when you are trying to get your foot in the door. I would also caution against the read receipt for the same reason.

If you have a second email address, you could BCC the document to yourself at the same time. If you receive it at the second address, that ups the odds that the editor received it, too.

Otherwise I would try to find a way to worry less about it. I think a response within a day might be asking too much, if it's not the editor's/industry's standard to always respond, "Got it, thanks! I'll let you know when I've read it." Since you say the deadline isn't strict, I would wait two or three days, and only then contact the editor to see if she got it, if you really feel the need to. Maybe also use the follow-up note to say something else you were going to say to her, so it's not JUST about whether she got the document. I think wolfie may have a point about not wanting to seem high maintenance.

My advice is "don't". Unless you are actually having email problems and have reason to suspect that they aren't getting there take a deep breath and realize she has a lot of other things to take care of and she will get to you when she can. You really don't want to get a reputation as a high maintenance person who needs people to drop things for you right this instance when you are trying to get your foot in the door. I would also caution against the read receipt for the same reason.

I so agree with this. I handle a large number of things that require a response where I work. We have an auto acknowledgement message that goes out every time something comes into the inbox for the team I'm on. But I still get a lot of people wanting additional acknowledgements/updates that I really don't have the time to give.

Or, to put it another way, I could spend the time sending all those acknowledgements or updates...or I can actually handle the issue. There aren't enough hours in the day for me to do both. Those who follow up anyway do come across as high maintenance and annoying.

So I wouldn't suggest that you do that. I do like the idea of bcc'ing yourself on the messages, so you at least know that the editor most likely did receive the message. But I think that it might help you to work on adjusting your expectations if you can, so that you know that you're likely to receive a response from her within two-three business days, which seems pretty reasonable from a busy person.

I really like the suggestion to BCC myself into the emails, it gives me extra confirmation that it sent okay (I've been having email issues, which is a big part of why I was worrying) so I'm going to start doing that.

Another con regarding the automatic "read" receipt: just because the sender requests the receipt, the receiver of the email can decline to send the receipt. (I never send read receipts and I have my email program set up to automatically ignore all receipt requests.